Chapter three
I don’t care who you think you are; if you keep hearing this creepy voice right in your ear you flip out. I was a man though; you have to show no weakness if you’re a man. You couldn’t show you’re scared, you couldn’t let anyone see your hands shaking or you’d lose any control you had. You hid your terror, boxed it up and shoved it somewhere dark as you tried to let anger take the front.
“Who the hell are you!?!” I wailed; screw being a man I was terrified.
There was a moment of silence; not the silence of nothing there but the silence of someone being very quiet on purpose.
“Well bugger me sideways” the voice said, a chill ran up my spine as I felt something cold approaching my right side “You can hear me.”
I flinched back as something so cold it chilled me to the core passed through my arm “AH! Y-yeah.” I rubbed my arm angrily, I shouldn’t act so afraid “Who are you? WHERE are you?”
“The name is Francis Blake” the voice said, it sounded like it was drifting away from me “And you can see me better if you switch the lights off.”
Hesitantly I glanced at the light switch, why would I be able to see him better with the lights off? Was it a ruse? Was he going to club me over the head with something heavy when I turned the light out and run for it? What if he- CLICK; stupid hands it always acted by itself and poked into places they didn’t belong.

Biting my lip hard I turned my head back towards the source of the voice; where there had been nothing before was now filled with a semitransparent man with a white shirt almost bursting from muscles and trousers that looked like they were so tight they were fused to him. I screamed, I yelled, I jumped from my bed and caught my toe on one of the surprisingly strong legs. I fell like a tree, slamming hard into the ground and lying there dazed for several moments.
“Well you’ve taken it better than some” the hovering apparition called Francis mumbled as he bent over me “There’s only been three people who’ve been able to see me; one’s insane now, one’s blind and the other’s dead from shock.”
“W’at arr yoo?” I mumbled, I’d bitten my tongue when I’d fallen and it hurt to speak.
“Me? Well I’m a ghost I’d say; the feet not touching the floor and ability to walk through walls is a clue. I’d be having a time of my life if it wasn’t for this” he kicked forward, there was a clink of metal and the bed suddenly lurched.
I looked down at his foot; there was a thick white chain leading from the bed post to a shackle around his ankle. I flicked the lights on and off; the chain disappeared with Francis every time.
“Why are you chained to my bed?” I asked, getting straight to the point.
“My bed, my bloody bed” Francis growled, crossing his translucent arms “I died in this bed sixty years ago and I’ll be damned if someone’s going to take it away from me.”
“Lookth like yoo alweady are” I pointed out, my tongue was still smarting.
“Shut up” Francis growled, snapping his rough fingers at me “Just because you’re the first person to speak to me in years doesn’t mean you can point out of all things I’m chained to a bed.”

The knock at the door startled both of us, I jumped and my new sleeping buddy almost went through the roof if it hadn’t been for the chain.
“James” it was my mother “we heard a thumb; you haven’t broken the bed already have you?”
“Gno!” I called out desperately, I couldn’t have my parents seeing a ghost in my room or they’d flip “I fell...”
There was a moment of tense silence where I danced back and forth on my toes, then my mother said “Alright, if you feel dizzy or sleepy don’t go to bed you’ve got a concussion.”
Yawning I mumbled “Alright, alright” after her as she went downstairs. I crawled into bed and did my best to ignore the frantic ghost who was pulling himself from the ceiling with his chain. I suddenly felt very tired actually... my mind couldn’t focus on anything long enough to keep me interested.
“Hey don’t go to sleep” Francis said warily, trying to shake my shoulder and just sending a numb feeling down my side “You don’t look so good.”
Who was he to say that? He was dead... I spaced again, the cold numbness in my side luring me towards the blackness of my eyelids. I wanted to sleep so badly, my tongue ached, my toe ached from the bed and my ribs still ached from the fall earlier... if I just closed my eyes it would all go-
“That’s it!” Francis yelled, throwing his arms up in the air. He took a few steps back, and then charged headlong towards my prone body screaming “CHAAAARGE!”
The blow threw me off the bed and smashed me against the side wall, my body bounced like a ragdoll. I panted hard as the coldness spread all through me, numbing my arms and legs; it spread quickly, heading inwards and up. My chest was cold now, the biting cold of drowning in ice; it was getting hard to breathe, my stomach cramped as the drowning chill rushed upwards towards my heart and head. I closed my eyes as it washed over my mind and infected deep into my brain, chilling me to the core. I waited for my breathing to stop and my pulse to halt... nothing happened. I opened my eyes; there was a slight white and black haze to everything.
“Bugger me sideways” my mouth said without me telling it to.

BOAMM chapter four